TLS as president, one page, 6.75 x 9.5, White House letterhead, March 21, 1962. Letter to John T. Jones, Jr., Publisher of the Houston Chronicle, in full: “Houston -- as the operational base of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Manned Spacecraft Center -- has become an integral part of the Nation’s space effort.
Through this special rotogravure issue, the Houston CHRONICLE has graphically demonstrated the readiness of the people of Texas to assure the continuing advancement of our national space program.
This special issue underlines the responsibility of news media to report accurately and in depth the course being charted across the unexplored oceans of space. Together, we are joined as a Nation in an endeavor holding promise of manifold benefits -- not only to Texas and the United States, but to all mankind.”
Uniform toning from adhesive on reverse, with a few heavier spots, and a Chronicle magazine stamp on the reverse, otherwise fine condition. Kennedy’s signature is extremely bold.
Almost a year after Alan Shepard became the first American in space, JFK sent this letter to the Texas newspaperman to continue his support of the space race. A Soviet cosmonaut had already bested the United States in becoming the first human in space...but JFK had another ‘first’ in sight: the moon. Such an endeavor would require a huge expansion of the fledging space agency that had been established, a facility to be known as the Manned Spacecraft Center. For Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, chairman of the National Space Council, there was only one conceivable location for such an agency: Houston. With the pieces in place and having stressed the importance “of news media to report accurately and in depth the course being charted across the unexplored oceans of space,” JFK would address students at Rice University in Houston the following September. It was there that he spoke of the mysteries of space, and delivered his famed ‘We choose to go to the moon’ speech. This letter serves as a passionate example of Kennedy’s hope that mankind would continue to reach for the stars. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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